


Narumi Shouhei & the Confidant

by Nedrika



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Genre: Alcohol, Four plus One, Idiots, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Marking, Shibari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21839377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nedrika/pseuds/Nedrika
Summary: Raidou is naturally good at keeping things under wraps, but even he can't plan for everything.
Relationships: Kuzunoha Raidou XIV/Narumi Shouhei
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

  * For [warfare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/warfare/gifts).



> Happy Yule! I couldn't play the second game because of licence stuff but the first one was my first SMT and I fell completely in love with it!

Raidou was surprised when Narumi offered to help with the spread of calculus papers and textbooks he had been quietly and steadily working his way through for the last hour. He accepted anyway, grateful for the change in perspective and the input of someone who had presumably been through it all before.

Narumi pulled up a chair next to him, immediately intent in a way that had to be down to procrastination from essential office administration and was a noticeable difference from every other time he'd brought his homework to the office. He leaned over to peer at the neat pencil scratches, Raidou pushing his chair back to give him space as his cologne tickled his nose. The room was still until he burst into activity with odd hums and ahhs, drawing elaborate diagrams and confidently marking down answers as Raidou struggling to catch the logic in the scrawl.

“Narumi-san, could you explain this one to me?” he asked at length, pointing to one that had been annotated with a graph that he’d never seen before and didn't seem to be related to the body of the question, but before he could get an answer Narumi stood with an ugly scream of his chair against the floor.

“What’s the time?!”

“8:23”

He patted himself down and dashed over to the door.

“That time already? I have to be out, there’s a lead on the case. Lock up for me, would you?” he said, jacket on and out the door in under a minute.

Left alone with the workbooks he gave all of Narumi’s answers a close examination, quietly erased their existence and filled them in over the rest of the evening.

A week or so later Narumi asked him how it had all gone; he preened that the given full marks was just as expected.


	2. II

He was a couple of streets away from the office on his way back; a regular fact-finding investigation with one of the local demons had been less than forthcoming and had left him at a dead end. Gouto was trailing behind him, giving a list of all of the ways they could get him to talk that Raidou wasn’t quite ready for, when he caught sight of a familiar hat down a side alley.

It was unusual enough for Narumi to be outside unless there was an emergency ongoing, especially to be crouching down in the dirt where his pale suit was in danger. He didn’t want to interrupt and mess up some important discovery or blow his cover, so he tucked himself in where he couldn’t be seen and settled himself down to watch.

Narumi set down a shopping bag and held out his hand to something, talking in low tones but he couldn’t make out the words.

“Do you want me to go check it out?” Gouto asked, and he nodded in response. A shadow moved by Narumi’s outstretched fingers to reveal a black cat, its huge green eyes staring as it gingerly wrapped itself around his knees; an identical black blur raced back towards Raidou.

“He’s calling it by my name!” it screeched in indignation. Gouto stopped by his feet, tail bristling and spine arched. “As if I’d ever lower myself like that.”

Raidou looked back to Narumi, baby-talking the cat as it wound its way around his legs, and he snorted out a laugh that had Narumi starting; he ducked back out of sight before he could be spotted but it took a lot of luck and direction from Gouto to get himself out unseen.

When Narumi came back into the office later, dust and dark hairs spotting his immaculate trousers, it was almost impossible to keep his composure but other than one odd look he was pretty sure that he’d made it out unscathed.


	3. III

Shin-sekai was bustling that night, and it was giving Raidou a headache.

All of his potential informants were having to shout to be heard over the racket, and the prospect of being overheard digging for information was unattractive. The current barfly, a trendy woman with hair curled tight to her scalp had leaned in and he was still losing words. He turned his ear to her and, taking a sip of his syrup-sweet soda, caught sight of a familiar fluffy head further through the crowd. He bowed an apology to her and slipped away.

Narumi was slouched over the bar, a couple of empty glasses in front of him and another half-full in his hand. They were unfamiliar garnishes but the cloud that engulfed him as he squeezed in at his elbow told him that they were mostly gin.

“Good evening, Narumi-san, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Raidou!” Narumi yelled, eyes brightening through the blur of drink; he must have been sitting there for a while as Raidou wheedled his way around the various patrons. “Raidou, have a drink. It’s a special day.”

Raidou signalled for two more of the sickly soda, no gin.

"What's the occasion?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Anniversary," Narumi drawled out, then slid himself further over the polished wood. There was a sadness in his eyes that stopped all questions. 

It was a long evening of shared presence where not a lot of conversation passed between them before they trailed their way back to Tsukudo-Cho, Narumi leaning heavy on Raidou's shoulder. He only protested a little as he was deposited onto the agency sofa, lolling listlessly across the cushions as Raidou folded his jacket and waistcoat and left a glass of water prominently on the table. 

The only blanket was thin and rough, Narumi not a man given to sleeping over at the office, but it would be better than nothing. Narumi grabbed his wrist as he tucked him in and mumbled incomprehensibly; Raidou bent his ear close in a mirror of the bar. 

"Thanks, kid. Don't... don't get old, okay? Nothing good comes of it. You're better than... that. You're..."

And then he was out. 

He was careful to not mention anything the next day when Narumi left, still complaining of a hangover and his hair even wilder than usual, and came back smelling of incense.


	4. IV

In hindsight, it had been a particularly bad idea to see Satake that day.

He’d disrobed at Konnou-Ya without thinking about it, happy to be in the relaxing steam rather than the icy cold outside, and the men in the changing rooms hadn’t given him a second glance.

Satake, however, had clocked him in an instant.

“Hey, Kuzunoha, good to see ya! Who you been brawlin’ with? Must've been a good one to land that many.”

Raidou stopped in his tracks, immediately vulnerable as he looked down himself and saw the faint lines across his stomach, the fading bruises along his hips. He sat down on the nearest bench, hoping that the steam would obscure the extent and the intent to the pattern, and cast about wildly for a reasonable explanation. He only managed a half-truth..

“I was… sparring with Narumi-san.”

“Ah! I heard he was good. I’ll hafta go see for myself some time,” Satake laughed, striking his thigh in his enthusiasm.

The vision of him busting down the Agency door with an intent to pulverise his boss was not one he enjoyed.

“I can’t promise he’d be in, there’s been talk of taking a long trip for one of our cases.”

A blatant lie but he bet right on Satake’s enthusiasm blinding him to it; the conversation bustled quickly on to the investigation where his heart rate had a chance to discover.

He was burning with self-consciousness as he awkwardly stood and walked back down the length of the baths, and he didn’t feel comfortable again until he was back in the office, the smell of coffee washing the sulphur from his clothes.


	5. I

Tae had been in the Agency all day, asking loudly about a shady character that apparently had ties to one of their old cases. Narumi had failed utterly in putting her off by obvious and repeat rebuffs; he'd loudly announced his departure on business and left Raidou with her. 

She wasn't getting a lot further with him, but at least there was a slightly less antagonistic atmosphere to the place. 

"Alright, I get that you can't show me the case file or anything. What can you give me?"

Raidou mulled it over; something that would be completely harmless for confidentiality, not reveal any occult secrets that she really didn't need to know about, but would be time consuming enough that he could go about his own business in quiet. 

The accounts. It would be disorganised; despite his attempts to intercede Narumi insisted that he would deal with all the money and legal matters. It technically could have tangential information by giving rough locations at certain dates, and because none of his demon-related purchases went on the ledger it would be clean of anything too dangerous for her to drag herself into. 

"The folder second drawer from the bottom, right hand side of the bureau."

Tae gave a whoop of victory and pulled the drawer open with a sharp "aha!" that morphed quickly into a low chuckle that made the back of Raidou's neck itch; when he saw what she'd found his heart stopped in his chest. 

She was pulling the end of a thin red rope out of the drawer like a gleeful snake charmer. 

She turned to him, her eyebrows lost beneath her hair, and there was nothing that he could say. It was impractical enough that he would never persuade her of another use, and her reaction made certain that she knew what she'd stumbled across. 

"The ceiling here is sturdiest," he said, an uncommon panic creeping across him as he scraped for the words and her eyes shot up to it, mouth dropping open. His hand anxiously touched his collar and her head dropped to follow the movement.

"You can't see in from the street because of the levels and screen. It would be more... discreet elsewhere, but Shou... Narumi-san doesn't always want to get all the way to a private room when the mood hits him..."

She pointed slowly at him.

"You?"

He stared back at her, unwilling to lie. The question had just been rather effectively answered.

She wasn't scandalised, more filled with the same effervescence as when she hit on a scoop. She wound her around the table to him as the rope dragged behind her like a tail to vanish into the drawer, mouth opened to ask a question he would almost certainly regret when the door opened. 

Narumi caught the atmosphere when he was only a few steps through the door and froze, hat still in hand. Tae spun to greet him, grinning, and the rope wagged along its length; he caught the movement and his hat hit the floor.

"Ah."


End file.
